Presidents and prime ministers from Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, St. Lucia, Barbados and Papua New Guinea are attending the meeting with Obama.
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“Your credibility and America’s ability to influence events depends on taking seriously what other countries care about”, Obama said.
The reason for that is, under a scenario where emissions continue at the current pace, most of the pollution growth comes from the anticipated increase in fossil fuel use by developing nations, said Ellie Johnston of the Climate Interactive. The Hawaiian-born Obama said he understands the beauty and fragility of island life and called their populations “among the most vulnerable to the ravages of climate change”.
The White House and Congress have long squabbled over the threat of climate change. “While this may serve to polish President Obama’s reputation among the environmental activist community, it will not result in a binding worldwide agreement or meaningfully impact global temperatures”.
“Although the targets themselves may not have the force of treaties, the process, the procedures that ensure transparency and periodic reviews, that needs to be legally binding”, Obama said in Paris, “and that’s going to be critical”.
According to the Senate committee document, the administration can’t enforce any agreements from the summit – even though Obama said exactly the opposite on Tuesday, declaring portions of the global warming deal being hammered out in Paris should be legally binding on the countries that sign on. That set off a search for a compromise where parts of the deal are binding and others are not, sparing the need for a new vote in Congress. His declaration was both a boost to climate negotiators seeking a tough accord and a challenge to Republicans in Congress, many of whom reject the idea of global warming.
A dozen activists unfurled banners and performed a skit Tuesday outside the exhibition halls hosting high-stakes climate talks through December 11.
Still, the president’s climate agenda is unquestionably under threat.
Meanwhile, France has promised €8 billion over the next five years for investment in renewable energy in Africa.
“I’m not sure I would have gone to the climate summit if I was president today”, Bush told reporters in Waterloo, Iowa.
Former NASA chief climate scientist James Hansen, often considered the godfather of global warming research, said Thursday there is a sense of unfairness about climate change.
“When a young student is forced to go study under a street lamp at night, it clearly demonstrates the electricity issue”, Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said.
French President Francois Hollande is holding talks with African leaders about what their countries need to cope with and reduce global warming.
Nicaragua’s lead negotiator Paul Oquist said Tuesday his country would not make any pledge to cut its emissions because that would let rich countries off the hook.
The goal – endorsed ringingly by world leaders at the start of the talks on Monday – is to commit every nation to a post-2020 pact to roll back emissions of carbon gases.
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Raman Mehta of the Bengaluru-based Vasudha Foundation said, “There is a very clear attempt by developed countries to slide away from their responsibilities, not just on their commitments on finance, but also on issues like loss and damage mechanism, or on the differentiation mechanism in the manner reviews of climate actions will take place”.
